A GREAT-GRANDAD was left battered and bruised on an NHS dementia ward after repeated attacks by other patients, a family have claimed.

Dementia patient Patrick Byrne, aged 84, who lived most of his life in Sheldon, needed six stitches to his head in the worst alleged incident.

Relatives were told he had fallen on to a fire extinguisher, but later discovered in A&E notes that paramedics said he had been attacked by another patient with a walking stick, which still had blood on it.

At least five attacks took place in three months after Mr Byrne was admitted to the Elderly Mental Infirm (EMI) ward at Royal Worcester Hospital in March 2009, relatives claim.

Daughter Jean Palfrey and her husband David, from Warwick, have referred the case to the Parliamentary Health Ombudsman and Care Quality Commission, which criticised elderly care in Worcestershire a month ago.

They also have concerns dad-of-four Mr Byrne was prescribed anti-psychotic drug Respiridone while on the Berkeley Ward, which they claim turned him into a “zombie”.

Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, which runs the ward, claims the paramedics were wrong and now says no-one witnessed the incident, although a patient with a walking stick with blood on was next to where Mr Byrne was found.